


in four movements

by fiveyaaas



Series: under mistletoe [12]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Bittersweet Ending, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Grief/Mourning, Heavy Angst, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Married Life, Older Man/Younger Woman, Pining, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Time Travel, Tragically Pining Idiots, read all tags and warnings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-13
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:54:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28052010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fiveyaaas/pseuds/fiveyaaas
Summary: Self-consciously, she raised the violin up, setting her chin on the rest and closing her eyes so that she wouldn’t see the glare he was giving her. Unfortunately, she could still feel it on her, and she shifted her weight uncomfortably, instead opening her eyes to read the music with as much fixation as she was capable of. When she finished, Five still wasn’t speaking, so she gathered her belongings and ambled out of his room in embarrassment.
Relationships: Number Five | The Boy/Vanya Hargreeves
Series: under mistletoe [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2036878
Comments: 2
Kudos: 25
Collections: Harcest Ficmas 2020





	in four movements

**Author's Note:**

  * For [CarpeDiemForLife](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CarpeDiemForLife/gifts).



**i. allegro**

When Seven first received her violin, she didn’t play in front of anybody for several months. She likely would have never played it, had it not been for Five asking her sweetly if she would play for him. He didn’t do many things  _ sweetly, _ but he claimed that he wanted to hear her play, that he wanted to hear it the day she became  _ extraordinary  _ at her instrument. Seven didn’t take offense to Five implying that she wasn’t extraordinary at it yet, considering that she’d just started. 

Especially when she’d never been anything except  _ just ordinary  _ all of her life. No matter how hard she tried, she was pathetic in most regards, but it was sweet of Five to at least  _ say  _ she was capable of being something great. And because he wasn’t often sweet about anything ever, she agreed. 

When it was Saturday, the day they were allotted thirty minutes of free time, she stumbled to Five’s bedroom on trembling legs. He’d suggested they not use the library where they usually spent their free time with one another for obvious reasons, but, when he’d said they’d do it in his bedroom, she grew nervous, afraid that if she failed now it would somehow make it even worse, like she’d desecrated his room with her ordinariness. 

Five swung open the door before she could come inside, and she wondered confusedly if she’d done something to upset him somehow. “You’re late,” he hissed. “We won’t have as much time now.” By late he meant the minute that it took for her to gather her violin and music book and walk to his room. She supposed that, for somebody who could appear out of thin air anywhere, something like that  _ would  _ be irritating. When she sheepishly apologized, though, he only looked even more upset with her, and she awkwardly looked around for a place she could sit down to play. Frowning, he grabbed his desk chair and pushed it in front of his bed, gesturing to it impatiently. 

“Are you mad at me?” Seven blurted. “Did I do something wrong?” 

Five sighed, loudly, eyes turning skyward. “No, just some stupid thing Three said earlier. I didn’t mean for you to think I was upset with you.” Not  _ quite _ an apology, but she accepted that this was all she was going to get from him, honestly a little dumbfounded that she got  _ that  _ much from him. “Now, could you play? Please?”

She flipped through the pages of  _ Suzuki Violin School,  _ trying to find an arrangement that was simple enough that she wouldn’t completely embarrass herself but also one that wasn’t so easy that Five would notice and start making fun of her. 

“So,” he cleared his throat. “Have you been using all of your study time to practice?”

She nodded, “Well, that and my foreign language training.” 

In German, he asked her how that was going, and she responded in Russian that it wasn’t awful, though androids made for boring conversationalists, causing his lips to quirk up into a half-smile. He once admitted to Seven that he was uncomfortable smiling at her too much because it always came out looking cruel, and he didn’t intend for that. Afterwards, when he smiled that half-smile that he gave her all the time, she got the sense that it was because he was genuinely worried about smiling too widely. It had never made any sense to her until he once gave a full smile to Two after training, and, even if it wasn’t directed at her, she felt unsettled. 

Switching back to English, Five said, “If you don’t wish to play the entire time, I actually had a theory I wanted to run by you.”

“A theory?” Seven asked, finding a beginner’s arrangement of  _ William Tell Overture _ and deciding on that, reaching for her rosin to ready her bow as it was in arco, which she’d only really just gotten comfortable with pretty recently. “What kind of theory?”

He gestured to his wall, where some of his equations were residing. “Time travel.” His voice was low as he confided in her, like he was worried somebody was listening in, though he was right to think so, considering the cameras kept in their rooms. “I have devised an equation to travel time, and I’m going to use it soon.” 

“Why do you need to run it by me though?” Absentmindedly, she started tuning the strings. 

“Well, ideally, I would jump forward with you, and I need to practice side-jumping before I do so.”

Seven raised her brows. “Isn’t that dangerous?”

He scowled, lips sealing into a thin line. 

Self-consciously, she raised the violin up, setting her chin on the rest and closing her eyes so that she wouldn’t see the glare he was giving her. Unfortunately, she could still feel it on her, and she shifted her weight uncomfortably, instead opening her eyes to read the music with as much fixation as she was capable of. When she finished, Five still wasn’t speaking, so she gathered her belongings and ambled out of his room in embarrassment. 

* * *

The next day, he tried to get her attention at all of their meals, but she ignored him, focusing on the food and feeling the loneliness start to engulf her again. It had been a few years since she’d felt this way. Five had become her companion shortly after training had grown more intense and Reginald’s disapproval in Seven, the ordinary one, grew stronger as well. When he’d first become her friend, she’d refused to believe that he’d had good intentions. At the very least, she’d thought he would leave her behind when he grew bored of her. 

At that particular moment though, he was trying to nudge against her foot with his own to get her attention, but she stared at her plate silently instead, not wanting to acknowledge him over his insecurities when he’d not even acknowledged her when she was worried he might get hurt. The more she ignored him though, the bolder he got. When he grabbed the hand she had clenched into a fist underneath the table, she tried her hardest to make no response, but she could feel her face start to burn. 

Dinner was over soon after, and she went straight to her room, imagining nobody would notice if she did otherwise. While the rules were stringent on all of them, she at least had the ability to blend in sometimes. Reginald had dismissed them all to their rooms thankfully, so she took little worry that anybody would even try to bother her. 

As she settled against her covers, she let herself hope that the loneliness would be easier to get used to this time around. Even though she had something to compare it to this time, she also knew how painful it was when companionship was taken away. Seven knew that the time had come, and Five was finally tired of her as she’d always expected he would be. 

She turned to face the single pillow on the smallest bed in the smallest room in the house, clutching it tightly as she cried.

* * *

When she came to breakfast in the morning, feeling ominously hollowed out, like all she’d contained in her body before were tears and she’d released them all, she stared at her plate in silence, listening to the German accent of the record as it played. At the very least, eating meals in silence was something of a comfort at the moment. It meant that she had an excuse as to why she wasn’t speaking to Five right now, and that she didn’t have to turn her head when he continuously poked her thigh, apparently thinking if he irritated her enough, she’d turn around and beg him for his forgiveness. 

To avoid making a fool of herself by doing just that, Seven told herself that if she turned her head at all, Reginald would berate her, use her as an example of what  _ not  _ to do. Oftentimes, ‘what not to do’ to him meant ‘whatever Seven is doing at any given moment,’ so she wouldn’t be surprised if that would be the case at that exact moment as well. 

After Reginald dismissed them all, she started walking to the room she usually practiced in. She was stopped by an arm clutching her elbow desperately, dragging her into a random supply closet and slapping a hand over her mouth to keep the scream from actually leaving it. “It’s just me,” the voice snapped, and Five pulled his hand away when she stopped struggling. Of course, once he did, he deflated completely. Somehow, seeing him look so crestfallen made it harder for her to be mad at him. There was something about his expression that just screamed  _ kicked puppy,  _ and she didn’t know how to handle seeing something so vulnerable across his normally somewhat stoic features. Quietly, Five asked, “Why are you ignoring me?” 

“You started it,” Seven accused.

“I didn’t-” Five cut himself off, seeing the resolute expression she shot him that clearly indicated she’d be fine giving him the silent treatment for eternity. “Alright,  _ fine.  _ Yes, I started it, but I didn’t intend for it to last this long.”

“It hasn’t even fully been two days, Five.”

“Yeah, well, you’re my best friend, and everybody else in this house is either too irritating or too distracted to take your place.”

“But you’d have them take my place if that weren’t the case,” Seven muttered, knowing it was probably just a  _ little  _ unfair but not caring because he’d been a jerk to her simply for expressing  _ concern. _ “You’d be friends with somebody who doesn’t worry when you say something  _ stupid  _ like you did the other day.”

“What do you mean  _ stupid?”  _

“It means that you shouldn’t time travel.”

He looked offended again, but this time he didn’t try to stifle down his hurt by not speaking to her. A snarl in his voice, he told her, “And what gives you the authority on that subject?”

Already knowing where this was going, Vanya decided to leave before she heard it. 

But, apparently, that only made him want to say it even more. “You would think that by now you’d have learned your place as the ordinary one.” 

She didn’t turn away in time for him to see the horrified expression that must have crossed her face. Face turning completely white, he reached for her, but she flinched away. Seeing that reaction, he dropped his hand, not bothering to chase after her when she ran away that time.

* * *

It was a mixture of Five’s persistence to talk to her and Seven’s discomfort at conflict that finally got them to speak again, but it felt different after that. Five made a point to be nicer to her afterwards in every single way possible, but she was hesitant to trust it, remembering the words he’d said. When they spent their free times together, she’d hear the word  _ ordinary _ on a loop in her mind. Every time he tried to say she did well at something, that word overpowered whatever he tried to say. 

Any time he ever tried to call her anything near  _ extraordinary,  _ she’d flinch away from him again.

So, he avoided using that word. 

They also had a mutual agreement, never actually spoken aloud but understood innately, to not bring up time travel again. 

And this arrangement worked for them, coexisting peacefully even if it was tarnished for her by the knowledge that he didn’t think highly of her at all. Really, at this point, being friends with Five was a decision made out of  _ desperation,  _ the fear of loneliness superseding the knowledge that he thought exactly like all of the others, that he thought exactly like Reginald. 

The silent agreement for him to be nicer and for her to not speak of time travel worked  _ well  _ even. 

Until it didn’t.

* * *

One night, soon after Seven had been named as Vanya and the Umbrella Academy had gone completely public, Five came to her room, hands wrung together as he paced the small surface area for at least thirty minutes until he abruptly stopped.

Turning to her, an expression on his face she’d never seen before, he cleared his throat, glancing at her lips for a few seconds before meeting her eyes. She’d never given much thought to his eye color before- pale green. Years ago, she thought the color, in combination with his dark hair and permanent scowl, had made him look  _ cold,  _ but they were warm right now. Maybe it was just all the hope that they held, something she’d never seen much of in the eyes of any of the people they lived with.

“I need to tell you something, and I don’t want you to get upset, okay?”

Already getting upset by the phrasing he’d used, Vanya promised, “I won’t get upset.”

“Tomorrow, I’m going to do it.”

“Do what?”

He blinked over to her, sitting down on her bed, taking her palms into his hands until they were lacing their fingers together. His were calloused from training, and hers were calloused from playing the violin. Five’s thumb stroked her wrist, feeling along the pulse point like he needed to assure himself that she wasn’t about to yell at him by checking it. “Time travel. I’m going to jump tomorrow.”

Vanya jerked back, but he grasped her wrist tighter, not quite rough enough for it to be painful, but the fact that the movement lacked the gentleness he always used with her since the time they’d had that major argument made her afraid.

“What do you mean you’re going to time travel?”

“I’ll go into the future. I think a few years, but I’m going to tell Dad tomorrow. It has to be bold, the way I do it. Otherwise, I…” He trailed off, staring at the ceiling like it would give him cues on what to say. Blood was rushing to Vanya’s ears, and she felt like she couldn’t move at all. “I wanted to ask you something, Vanya, before I left-” 

He was eyeing her lips again, and she didn’t know if it was her imagination or if they actually were closer together. When he cleared his throat again, her heart was pounding in anticipation, and she wondered vaguely what the word ‘puckered’ meant (the romance novels she sometimes stole from Allison’s bedroom always said you ‘puckered up’ before a kiss, but she didn’t know how to do so). Vanya leaned in a little closer, and Five said, “Would you… would you like to come with me? When I jump?”

She scrambled away from him, getting as far away from him on the bed as she possibly could. “Absolutely not!”

He reached for her before thinking better of it and dropping his hand. “Vanya, I  _ want  _ you to go with me.”

But she didn’t believe him. All she could hear was one word in her mind, so she threw back the words he’d used the first time they’d argued about this against him, “I know my place, Five.” She wondered if the words were hollow to his ears as much as they were to his own. “As the ordinary one.”

That time, he was the one to flinch. 

When Vanya told him to leave, he did, stumbling away from her. 

The next day, he was gone for good.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading💕💕💕


End file.
